Trying to cancel Setanta?!

pen1

After complaining to Setanta by email, that they hadn't acted on 2 letters of cancellation, I received an email reply- that I needed to put it in writing!

There was no response in their reply, to my complaint that the quality of customer service was unacceptable.

If Setanta's customer service operation cannot cope with the volume of incoming work, then I imagine that the amount of prevarication that appears to exist in their cancellation process, is only making matters worse.

If my own situation is anything to go by, then aside from dealing inconclusively with an email, there are now 4 letters from me, at 3 different offices, and still no outcome!

gardner1

shirlthegirlx wrote: »

Yes we cancelled direct debit and our viewing of setanta was deleted only a day or two after we made the phone call, quick at doing some things eh!!!! We did receive an email from them comfirmaing cancellation, but the fact remains that they still took money without permission. They told Trading Standards that the only way to deal with it is to contact them through their Luxumborg office, but they still ignoring him!
Just think of how many more £9.99's theyre taking from people

if you have cancelled dd how are they taking money of you

peediedj

gardner1 wrote: »

if you have cancelled dd how are they taking money of you

they did the same with me,i have setanta and multi room 1 is £10 and multi room was £5,i cancelled multiroom(dd),but they continued taking it out my bank as it was from saame account as £10- one but different dd
now iam mad i pay £5 per mnoth for multi room and just discovered there charging multi room for free for 1st 3 months then £2.99 per mth after that:mad:

shirlthegirlx

I cancelled our direct debit after they had taken the 9.99 out that they shouldn't have taken, although now we know it was too late
But they have ignored our recorded letters and emails and our trading standards guy!!!

gardner1 wrote: »

if you have cancelled dd how are they taking money of you

pen1

javaman wrote: »

...their stealth T&C changes and general disregard for customer service and continually moving the goalposts to cancel ....

They've just updated the "contact us" section on their website to say:

Cancellation Enquiry
All cancellation requests must be made via the telephone by calling 08712 00 33 22 between the hours of 9am to 9pm 7 days per week.

http://www.setanta.com/en/UK/Contact-Us/

...at which point- unless they've changed their policy again- they'll presumably try to persuade the customer to stay, then if that fails, insist that the customer can't cancel by telephone (because the terms & conditions state that any notice must be given in writing) and demand it in writing (?)

Why they don't just outline a procedure transparently, that doesn't prevaricate, I do not know, because the pressure of work that multiple contacts on the same subject must add to their customer services, and the anger that customers feel and relay on forums like this etc, must be more damaging than respecting peoples' wish to cancel and doing it at the first time of asking, in my view.

GEMGIRL67

I rang up to cancel on Monday, but was offered £5 subscription for the next 3 months, which I agreed to.

My direct debits are taken out on 2nd of the month, and £9.99 had been taken out on 2 June 2008.

Received a letter off setanta this morning, saying welcome to setanta sports, your first payment of £5 will be taken out on 11 June 2008 and first payment may include a registration fee. Monthly payments will be taken out on the 9th of the month.

So, I am now going to be paying 2 subscriptions to setanta.

I am not a happy bunny I can tell you.

shirlthegirlx

Hi javaman, sorry i dont know how to PM u, but i would like to be included in any formal 'proceedure' that you would care to follow, as I think their service is atrotious. How many more people are out there that we dont know about??

javaman wrote: »

After lack of interest from a couple of local journalists to write about Setanta, their stealth T&C changes and general disregard for customer service and continually moving the goalposts to cancel, I've decided to write an article myself publish it online and offer it to a few of the national newspapers.

I know a lot of you, like myself have had several bad experiences with them, many mentioned here, but if you'd like to formally contribute to my article, feel free to PM me with specifics, and I'll consider them for inclusion.

Once I have enough from the customer POV, I'll give Katie Isworth at Setanta a call and see what the company she works for has to say, although I dare say I'll probably not get much joy there.

When it's done, I'll link you up to it, and we'll see if it snowballs.

Regards,

Javaman.

Trixxie

GEMGIRL67 wrote: »

I rang up to cancel on Monday, but was offered £5 subscription for the next 3 months, which I agreed to.

My direct debits are taken out on 2nd of the month, and £9.99 had been taken out on 2 June 2008.

Received a letter off setanta this morning, saying welcome to setanta sports, your first payment of £5 will be taken out on 11 June 2008 and first payment may include a registration fee. Monthly payments will be taken out on the 9th of the month.

So, I am now going to be paying 2 subscriptions to setanta.

I am not a happy bunny I can tell you.

similar-ish happened to me - get straight down to your bank as soon as you can and cancel any and ALL future direct debits to Setanta. The request for the 11 June payment won't actually reach your bank for about a week so you still have time!

What they have done is set you up with a brand new account with different account start date etc. Best of luck to you sorting it out ....

Sharks is an understatement!

pen1

One of the problems with Setanta's customer service, in my opinion, is that there doesn't appear to be an easily accessible escalation process, where somebody can look at all of the facts, bring cases to a resolution, and demonstrate that they actually care about the customer's experience.

From my experience so far, different bits of the operation follow their own processes, without taking responsibility for the customer's experience.

A letter, for example, arrives at one office, but doesn't get actioned. The next agent the customer contacts then acts as if the letter doesn't exist.

rodddy

Afetr two months of trying I've - hopefully - finally got rid of them. I was with their Freeview service.

My tips to cancel.

• Send recorded delivered mail to their Sunderland address cancelling the service. In the letter offer to settle any outstanding balance by cheque and ask them to write or phone you to inform you of what this amount is? That way they cannot dispute that you were willing to pay. After all if they can pester you with letters and texts why can't they write to tell you have an outstanding balance.

• If you have a direct debit cancel it straight away. Do not wait for them to.

• Do not respond to their texts or letters prompting you to phone them - you will get many of these. This is just a ruse to earn money of you. 0871 numbers can cost up to 10p a minute on a BT line and the amount of time Setanta keep you on hold means that money racks up to a nice little earner for them.

• If you have to call them, use one of the regional Sunderland numbers - beginning in 0191 - found on http://www.saynoto0870.com or this forum. This will be at BT standard rate.
• You cannot get a bad credit rating if you follow this procedure as you do not have any contract with them and they would need to take you to court before any 'black mark' could be registered against you.

Finally, if you are thinking of signing up to their service, I would recommend from my experiences, that you don't. It's too much hassle to cancel. In this day and age to ask you to cancel the service 'by writing a letter' beggars believe. I was told that they cannot prove who am I to do on the phone which is why I had to write. Funny really when I could happily reel of my debit card details to them as I did when i registered for their service. It's just a way of them to make it more difficult and they obviously hope that people won't bother.

I will from now on happily go to a pub to watch the match or watch it live on a free internet stream. Anyone can do this with broadband. Search Google for 'free live footy' and you'll ge to see it for free, or visit http://www.myp2p.eu/.

Setanta have lost my business for life.

Setanta - truly have the worse 'customer service' of any company that I have ever dealt with.